Ang Bomba

For two days, we had experienced scarcity of water. This was due to the super typhoon Yolanda, which hit our city last Friday, 8th of November. Because of that, my family and I were able to locate a handful of manual water pumps in our village or barangay, and to some neighboring barangays too. These ancient looking pumps, which before very common sightings, at a time there were still no faucets in every household. We call these things as "BOMBA", in my mother tongue, which is Visayan language, that I love so much.

These "bomba" thou old and seemed to be outdated, had given us the basic of all- WATER. One could live without electricity and not be updated in Facebook, Twitter, Blog site and other sites, whatsoever. But one can not do without water. I am so grateful of these thing which gives us the necessary thing in our life.

In our barangay, I had learned that there were at least four "bomba" around, I think there are more, but so far, that is sufficient for me to supply what we need. I had seen also, in another barangay, a water pump which is very visible to public's eye. I never realized, it's importance until we needed it.

When I saw "bomba" along the way, a glee feeling ignited in me. There were many people getting water in there, patiently waiting for their turn to pump those long handle, and be able to fetched some water. People of all walks of life, taking turns in pumping water. The best part, while waiting for our containers to be filled; we chatted about the calamities we were experiencing. I never knew, that the "bomba" could be a great venue for conversation.

Calamities, scarcity and trials... allowed us to connect to each other and to God, too. Thru it, God makes us realized that He is always here, giving us the help to just go thru our lives. We do not need to be complicated; life is simple. If we needed something, these are just available to us for our taking. It is just a manner of where to look. We do not need to panic or to do hoarding of things and food. In the end, God is always providing us.  Have FAITH in Him always.

For water, we have "bomba"- which had been with us since time immemorial. Our land is so fertile with water, a vast of it. All we need is to calm down, and fall in line and wait for our turn to pump those thing. And for what you know, you'll enjoy the experience. Because we did.